Rights to Sexual Expression and Relationships

“Sexually-free in Q – L – D!”

“Time to Nix 2 – 1 – 6!”

We wrote a letter to Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath in 2016, asking her to consider removing or repealing section 216 of the Queensland’s Criminal Code. It discriminates against people who have intellectual disabilities, and others, by making it unlawful for anyone to have intimate relations (sex) with them. Section 216 is different to many of the other sexual assault provisions of the Criminal Code, because a prosecutor does not need to show that the alleged victim did not consent. Why? Because consent is not at issue. In our Queensland law, people who have ‘impairment of the mind’, like children, are not capable of consenting to sex.